Code Enforcement at Work

Last Tuesday, Gossips did a post about 215 Union Street, enumerating the details of the building that departed from what was proposed and what was granted a certificate of appropriateness by the Historic Preservation Commission. Chief among those departures was the stoop and the front door.

When the problems were brought to his attention, code enforcement officer Craig Haigh issued a stop-work order. No work on the building could continue until there was an amended certificate of appropriateness or it was agreed that the problems would be corrected. The latter option was chosen. 

The offending stoop and front doors have been removed. There are plans to install the sills from the demolished building, as cosmetic rather than structural elements, and to build ornamental chimneys. According to Haigh, the lintels are the only elements that are problematic, since the window openings were constructed with jack arches instead of lintels as the structural support. It is reported that none of the alterations from the original design approved by the HPC had been authorized by the building owner.
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